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Soda Lemonade
Powdered Sugar, 3 heaping teaspoonfuls; Lemon, juice of, 1. Soda water to fill tumbler, add shaved ice, stir with a spoon.
A fountain formula rather than a kitchen one: it assumes a tumbler under a pressurised soda tap and a block of ice to shave. Both are easy enough to replace.
- Powdered sugarIn period usage this means finely ground granulated sugar rather than modern confectioners' sugar, which contains starch. Three heaping teaspoons is roughly 1 to 1 1/2 tablespoons; taste and adjust to the lemon you have.
- The tumblerPeriod tumblers were generally smaller than the tall glasses common now, so if you use a large glass you may want to increase the sugar and lemon in proportion.
- Dissolve firstThe recipe as written fills the glass with soda, adds ice and stirs, but sugar dissolves slowly in cold carbonated water; working the sugar into the lemon juice before the soda goes in makes for a more even drink.
- Soda waterPlain carbonated water, unsweetened and unflavoured. Fountain soda was heavily charged; use fresh seltzer straight from the bottle and pour down the side of the glass to keep the gas.
- Shaved iceIce came in blocks and was shaved or chipped for drinks. Crushed ice is the nearest equivalent, though it dilutes quickly, so drink promptly.
- StirringThe recipe says only to stir with a spoon; keep it brief, since prolonged stirring drives off the carbonation that distinguishes a soda lemonade from a still one.
- YieldOne glass. The proportions multiply cleanly, but hold the soda until the moment of serving.
Soda lemonade sat at the junction of two nineteenth-century trades: the lemonade sold at fairs and public gardens for generations, and the carbonated water dispensed at druggists' fountains from the 1830s onward. Apothecaries stocked charged water as a medicinal article, and it was the addition of sugar, fruit acid and flavouring syrups that turned a pharmacy counter into a refreshment stand. The instructions are telegraphic and the vessel is named as a tumbler, a brevity that assumes the reader already knows what to do and needs only proportions. The recipe also shows why citrus mattered so much to the trade, since the sharpness of fresh lemon juice was the cheapest way to make a glass of sweetened gas taste like a drink.